The development of nanoscale patterns has a vast variety of applications going from biology to solid state devices. In this research we present a new direct patterning technique in which laser photoreduction of silver from a liquid is controlled by a scanning atomic force microscope tip. While pursuing the formation of patterns using the plasmonic field enhancement of an electromagnetic wave incident on a metallic Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip, our group discovered that contrary to expectations, the tip suppresses, rather than enhances, deposition on the underlying substrate, and this suppression persists in the absence of the tip. Experiments presented here exclude three potential mechanisms: purely mechanical material removal, depletion of the silver precursor, and preferential photoreduction on existing deposits. An example of a nano-scaled pattern was generated to show the possibilities of this work. These results represent a first step toward direct, negative tone, tip-based patterning of functional materials.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uky.edu/oai:uknowledge.uky.edu:ece_etds-1005 |
| Date | 01 January 2012 |
| Creators | Jarro Sanabria, Carlos Andrés |
| Publisher | UKnowledge |
| Source Sets | University of Kentucky |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering |
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